Chapter 24 - Showing your Hand

“Failure is unacceptable…I’ve already failed, I suppose I’m denying that…” Ekyt was starting to speak in riddles. Asuma, always to the point, asked Ekyt what he was talking about. It’s not like Ekyt was making sense at this point.

“Should I still be a genin? Should my team have been some thrown-together emergency unit? Should I have been arrested? No, no, no. I don’t mean to whine, sensei, but it’s been too long without any recognition.” Ekyt looked up at Asuma. He had sat down to tend to his eye, securing the collar of his shirt around it. The blood was still pouring from the wound, almost unnaturally so.

Asuma sighed. “So if you fail, you think all the work you’ve done will be for nothing? Is that it?”

Ekyt looked away. “Partially. That, and the usual stuff. I don’t belong. Think about this, all the friend’s I’ve made, jonin aside, are outsiders. Katsuyori, a samurai; Sai, an artist without a personality…And there’s me. And now…” Ekyt’s voice gathered in volume and emotion.

“I’m a freak! Look what those bastards did! I should have killed those three! I should have just eaten them alive! But I held back. Does a JONIN hold back? OF COURSE NOT! DAMN IT!” Ekyt cracked a tree with his fist, ignoring the bleeding cuts, and the stunned look on Asuma’s face.

I haven’t seen him like this before…I know Genma said he had lost it with Tsunade…but still, that might have been exaggerated. Seeing THIS first-hand…it’s unnerving. Excusable because of the situation, but still scary to see such a calm kid lose his cool so spectacularly.

“I always mess up! I can train until I die, and nothing! Not one-damn-thing! What does it take to impress that Hokage?!”

Asuma still couldn’t believe Ekyt was even moving. That was an eye that just got mutilated…and he’s worried about a rank? What kind of mentality does this kid have? It must be tough. Tsunade really should try to channel it positively, instead of pissing the kid off. No one gives him credit, so he can never quit. Normally, that’s really admirable, but his life is at stake. I’ve got to get him to go back to the Leaf. But how do I terminate this mission without anyone failing?

Ekyt was now pacing around the clearing, cursing under his breath, trying and failing to light a chakra cigarette, his depth perception gone for the time being. His remaining eye would adjust, he knew, but he was getting angry very fast. He finally succeeding in lighting the cigarette, then promptly jammed it into his mouth, glaring around the clearing, half-waiting for more Mist ninja.

“Ekyt, just got word from Tsunade. The mission is terminated for a new plan of attack. That arsonist has moved on. The Land of Trees withdrew their request for help.”

Asuma HAD just talked to Tsunade, and all this was true. The arsonist’s identity, however, wasn’t something Asuma was going to tell Ekyt. Bad enough he was a criminal, but he was also a Mist ninja. If Ekyt knew THAT, there would be no stopping him.

Trees are out…Ekyt can’t travel that way… Asuma was trying to figure out how to get home. Ekyt just kept muttering, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji showed up. No one asked about Ekyt’s eye, though Ino took a prolonged look. Shikamaru and Choji didn’t dare say anything. They had never seen Ekyt look so…severe. Not even angry, but disturbed.

Tok Tok Tok!

Three more Shinobi joined them. They had landed on Ekyt’s blind side, so Ekyt treated them as enemies. WHOOK! CRACK!

A blind side-kick bent one attacker over at the stomach. Ekyt spun, his hand cocked to punch. That punch rocketed off someone’s nose. But the punch was also hard to land, so Ekyt decided to stick with kicks for now. They required less use of depth perception. Jutsus would be hard to aim, and Ekyt really didn’t want to use any more chakra than necessary right now.

“What’s the matter, you freaks? COME ON! You blinded me, you can’t even beat a kid with one eye? Some warriors YOU are! I could have whipped the @$$ of everyone in your village myself!” Ekyt taunted, laughing maniacally as he dodged attack after attack.

“Shut up, you little bastard! SHUT UP! We’ve got your eye! How about THAT?!” one yelled.

Crick.

Ekyt rushed him in a blind rage, shouting obscenities, making threats, and making good on some of those threats, all at the same time.
-

For a while, Asuma’s team could only watch, stunned that Ekyt was fighting so well with such an injury. That in and of itself made Asuma wonder about Ekyt’s injury. Now, as Ekyt finished the three Shinobi relatively easily, his suspicions were all but confirmed. Ekyt himself gave the last word as he was pulled off the three unconscious enemy Shinobi.

“Sorry about that act, Asuma-sensei…” Ekyt pulled the collar off his eye, revealing it to be fine. “But I noticed those guys tailing us, and I couldn’t think of how to tip you off. Sorry for the act, but any other way would have let them get away…” Ekyt blinked, trying to get used to using two eyes again. The injury was fake, but he had really covered his eye.

Asuma couldn’t hold that against Ekyt. Doing what you had to do, that was just fine when it saved lives.

“Geez, you certainly had that thought out. Were you EXPECTING to be attacked?” Shikamaru drawled. Ekyt actually nodded.

“The Mist Village is a little angry with me, it seems, for ruining their execution. Too bad for them, I wouldn’t take it back if I could. I’m sorry for the act, but like I said, I didn’t know WHEN they were going to attack. When they showed up, it was before I had a chance to tell you, and if I had spoken up then, they would have run for it.”

“Oh, so you wanted prisoners? To stop this whole thing? Like, hostages?” Ino asked, trying to make sense of a confusing predicament.

“Yes. I’ve heard rumors that the Mist Village holds a number of our own as prisoners. So I wonder if they’ll be willing to make a trade. They’re a small village compared to the Leaf, they can’t afford to lose Shinobi.” Ekyt shrugged, as if saying ‘think what you want’, and started to light a new chakra cigarette.

“Does the Fifth Hokage know about this?” Asuma queried.

“No. It’s easier to obtain forgiveness than permission,” Ryouko replied. Asuma couldn’t argue that. In the same situation, he probably would have done the same thing as Ryouko. Asuma hadn’t earned a 35 million ryo price on his head by playing by the rules. And it wasn’t like Ryouko didn’t think about the village as he acted…

Asuma stroked his chin. “Alright. You take these clowns back to the village, and tell Lady Tsunade. Make sure you tell her that THEY attacked YOU, she’ll be more receptive once she knows you acted in self defense. The rest of us will move on to the Land of Trees. That’s well within wireless range of the Hidden Leaf, if we get in trouble, I’ll signal you. It’s actually better this way, that way, if this IS a trap, not everyone gets caught in it…”

Ekyt nodded his understanding. “You go on ahead. I’m thinking I should request some kind of escort. These three weren’t alone before, they might not be now…” Ekyt looked around, a nervous smile on his face. “I’d be surprised if they were, in fact. I took them on alone just to see their skills…and, frankly, I shouldn’t have been able to win that easily. I think these guys are some kind of warm up or something…”

“Maybe we should stay. I mean, no telling how many there are, right?” Choji muttered, looking around for support. Ekyt shook his head, though.

“No, you go on ahead. I’ll get backup from the village, they aren’t far. And it’s more likely more of their friends will show up if I’m alone, at least at first.” Ekyt rolled his shoulder, just relaxing apparently, like nothing was wrong.

Asuma didn’t want to leave, it really went against the grain to leave someone so young and inexperienced alone in a situation like this, but there wasn’t much choice. They were contracted to help the Land of Trees. Ekyt wasn’t, he was only supposed to aid them. And he WAS aiding them, if he got rid of the Mist Ninja tailing them.

“Alright, but don’t let yourself get in too deep,” Asuma warned.

“Understood. Have a safe trip,” Ekyt told them. Asuma and his team left. As soon as they got out of the way, Ekyt inhaled all he could of his chakra cigarette, then put his mask on. He only wore his mask in combat. Well, this was sure to be something CLOSE to combat…

--

Ekyt looked around, seeing eighteen Mist ninja of varying ranks surrounding him, glaring at him, and brandishing weapons. Asuma’s team was long gone. Ekyt had to hold out until his backup arrived. He keyed his field mic, but didn’t speak into it. He keyed it again, still not speaking. But that was the signal for the Leaf to send backup. This was too much…

“You want to get me that badly?” Ekyt asked aloud. The Mist ninja didn’t answer. That struck Ekyt as odd. Curious, he threw a kunai at one of the Mist ninja. It went right through him. Clones! But how many were clones?! Even worse:

This must have been a trap! There’s three right now that are real. At least, that I know about. There’s probably a lot more real ones waiting…damn. If I cancel the call for help, I’m done for. If I don’t, there’s a chance that this is too big a trap, and we’ll ALL die…well then, I’ve got to go down fighting…alone.

Ekyt keyed his field mic again, and this time barked into it: “Abort signal! Repeat, abort signal!”

Kunai came from seemingly every direction. Ekyt dodged and blocked as much as he could, but still got cut to ribbons. This wasn’t good at all. If he could just FIND his attackers, Ekyt knew he stood a chance of winning. Right now, he was just getting worn out. Maybe it was time for a trap of his own. The next time the kunai started to rain down, Ekyt used a replacement jutsu. Then another. Then another. He was panting by the end, but had laid his trap.

“Remote Detonation Jutsu!”

The exploding tags Ekyt had planted on the logs detonated, sending splinters of wood all over. Ekyt narrowed his eyes, trying to look through the smoke. He was dismayed at what he saw.

“No way…damn, that didn’t do anything…” Ekyt breathed, not believing that all that had just proven that the eighteen Shinobi he could see were just clones, unaffected by their environment or attacks. The number of clones hadn’t changed, so unless the Mist Shinobi had bailed out quickly, they were never among the ones Ekyt had seen.

I don’t even know where my attackers are hiding. This puts me at a bigger disadvantage than I thought…Got to think this one out, too…

Ekyt suddenly noted movement. He didn’t attack right away. Better to let his attackers come to him…he DID have three hostages after all. But things changed very quickly. The clones disappeared.

“Are you okay, Ekyt-sensei?”

Katsuyori, his sword shoulder, joined by Yamato, and some girl Ekyt didn’t know, had apparently taken care of the clones.

“I’m fine, thank you. Did you get my message to disregard the attack?” Ekyt was too shocked to be angry that his request had been ignored.

“We did, but we had to come. We captured the three that were attacking. Combined with the three you’ve got, quite a day’s work!” Kantai added, after introducing herself.

Ekyt dusted himself off. “Well, good thing you ignored me. I made a bad move, and they could have gotten me, but good. Alright then, let’s go back to the village.”

There was silence. Yamato and Katsuyori both wore uncomfortable looks. Ekyt didn’t like that. Something had to be up. But what did that mean for him?

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